Tuberculosis and Mycobacteria

TB and HIV co-infection

Track09: TB and HIV co-infection

TB and HIV co-infection is when people have both HIV infection, and also either latent or active TB disease. When someone has both HIV and TB each disease speeds up the progress of the other. In addition to HIV infection speeding up the progression from latent to active TB, TB bacteria also accelerate the progress of HIV infection. TB also occurs earlier in the course of HIV infection than many other opportunistic infections. The risk of death in co-infected individuals is also twice that of HIV infected individuals without TB, even when CD4 cell count and antiretroviral therapy are taken into account.

Providing HIV antiretroviral therapy and anti TB drug treatment together

The provision of HIV antiretroviral therapy and anti TB drug treatment at the same time involves a number of potential difficulties including:

·         Cumulative drug toxicities

·         Drug – drug interactions

·         A high pill burden

·         The Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (IRIS)